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Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2025.
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| Format: | Thesis |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
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| _version_ | 1867614076084944896 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Makhetha, Trevor |
| author2 | Fakier, Khayaat |
| author_browse | Fakier, Khayaat Makhetha, Trevor |
| author_facet | Fakier, Khayaat Makhetha, Trevor |
| author_sort | Makhetha, Trevor |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132641 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:46:16.958Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132641 Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School Makhetha, Trevor Fakier, Khayaat Pattman, Rob Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology. Masculinity -- South Africa Sex role -- South Africa Men -- Identity -- South Africa Teenagers -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa Aggressiveness Culturally relevant pedagogy Equality -- Gender Educational equalization -- South Africa Colored people (South Africa) UCTD Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. Makhetha, T. 2025. Love, Learning, and Identity at New Hope: A Critical Ethnographic Study of how Young Coloured Men Construct and Perform Race, Masculinity, and Sexuality at a Northern Cape High School. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/d1814024-781f-4e98-98c3-f01533880fdf ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation discusses sixteen young Coloured men’s lives in ways that document in equal measure their failures, suffering, and pain, as well as their victories, pleasures, joys, and how they love. In doing so, I aim to grapple more comprehensively with their complex lives, interpret their behaviours in more nuanced ways, and provide practitioners and researchers working with young men with deeper insights to inform policy, practice, and interventions. This is done without being naïve to the reality that versions of the masculinities available to young Coloured men featured in this study may promote and condone misogyny, homophobia, and violence. Still, this work is crucial at a juncture where boys and men are habitually implicated in gender-based violence, coercive and unsafe sexual practices, and problematic notions of manhood. The corpus of academic scholarship engaging with the harm men inflict on themselves and others suggests that reaching men in their youth may have a lasting impact in reducing the propensity for such behaviour, and may create more egalitarian social relations. My academic, activist, and professional work, which in many ways inspired this study, is in service of this ideal. The young men I reflect on in this dissertation are creative and resilient individuals who have a deep awareness of their social worlds. I demonstrate how their behaviours and actions, including those that are harmful to themselves and others, are in part shaped by prevailing social norms and by their peers. I theorise the dynamic encounters between my participants, other boys and young men, girls and young women, and teachers – who I call the audience – in different social settings and in different temporal moments, as carefully crafted acts or performances to create specific impressions about themselves. In the same way, I contend that to reveal the nuances, contradictions, and complexities of these young Coloured men’s performances, one must critically reflect on how racialised economic inequalities and racial separation structure social life in this small town, in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The data presented in this dissertation are based on a 13-month-long ethnographic study conducted between June 2014 and July 2015. All procedural and situated ethical considerations were adhered to and ethical clearance was granted by the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at Stellenbosch University. The findings of this study show that young Coloured men actively negotiate, conform to, and resist the prevailing social norms or grand narratives in the town and the school. Moreover, the findings suggest that participants' performances are influenced by their peers' verbal and non-verbal cues and expressions. I demonstrate how performances were either welcomed and celebrated through agreement, laughter, and bodily expressions, or rejected through silence, cajoling, and othering. This, in turn, led to adjustments or exaggerations of acts informed by the audience’s reactions. The audience was actively engaged in the performance, rather than being observers or consumers of these acts. Unlike Goffman (1959) who foregrounds the role of the actor and the performance, I argue that the audience is as critical in shaping the performance as the actor and the prevailing grand narratives or scripts are. To this end, I contend that social identities are co-produced through a dynamic engagement I term Audiensciousness: the keen awareness and involvement of actors and audiences in the performance and the production of social identities and the social meanings attached to these. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif bespreek sestien jong Kleurlingmans se lewens op maniere wat in gelyke mate hul mislukkings, lyding en pyn dokumenteer, sowel as hul oorwinnings, plesier, vreugdes en hoe hulle liefhet. Sodoende beoog ek om meer omvattend met hul komplekse lewens te worstel, hul gedrag op meer genuanseerde maniere te interpreteer en praktisyns en navorsers wat met jong mans werk, dieper insigte te bied om beleid, praktyk en intervensies in te lig. Dit word gedoen sonder om naïef te wees vir die realiteit dat weergawes van die manlikheid wat beskikbaar is vir jong bruin mans wat in hierdie studie verskyn, vrouehaat, homofobie en geweld kan bevorder en goedpraat. Tog is hierdie werk van kardinale belang op 'n tydstip waar seuns en mans gewoonlik betrokke is by geslagsgebaseerde geweld, dwang en onveilige seksuele praktyke, en problematiese idees van manlikheid. Die korpus van akademiese wetenskap wat betrokke is by die skade wat mans hulself en ander berokken, dui daarop dat die bereiking van mans in hul jeug 'n blywende impak kan hê om die geneigdheid tot sulke gedrag te verminder, en meer egalitêre sosiale verhoudings kan skep. My akademiese, aktivistiese en professionele werk, wat in baie opsigte hierdie studie geïnspireer het, staan in diens van hierdie ideaal. Die jong mans oor wie ek in hierdie proefskrif reflekteer, is kreatiewe en veerkragtige individue wat 'n diep bewustheid van hul sosiale wêrelde het. Ek demonstreer hoe hul gedrag en optrede, insluitend dié wat skadelik vir hulself en ander is, deels gevorm word deur heersende sosiale norme en deur hul eweknieë. Ek teoretiseer die dinamiese ontmoetings tussen my deelnemers, ander seuns en jong mans, meisies en jong vroue, en onderwysers – wat ek die gehoor noem – in verskillende sosiale omgewings en in verskillende tydelike oomblikke, as noukeurig vervaardigde handelinge of optredes om spesifieke indrukke te skep oor hulself. Op dieselfde manier voer ek aan dat om die nuanses, teenstrydighede en kompleksiteite van hierdie jong Kleurlingmans se vertonings te openbaar, 'n mens krities moet besin oor hoe gerasseerde ekonomiese ongelykhede en rasseskeiding die sosiale lewe in hierdie klein Noord-Kaapse dorpie struktureer. Die data wat in hierdie proefskrif aangebied word, is gebaseer op 'n 13 maande lange etnografiese studie wat tussen Junie 2014 en Julie 2015 gedoen is. Alle prosedurele en geleë etiese oorwegings is nagekom en etiese klaring is deur die Fakulteit Lettere en Sosiale Wetenskappe aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch verleen. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie toon dat jong bruin mans aktief onderhandel, voldoen aan, en die heersende sosiale norme of groot narratiewe in die dorp en die skool weerstaan. Verder dui die bevindinge daarop dat deelnemers se prestasies beïnvloed word deur hul maats se verbale en nie-verbale leidrade en uitdrukkings. Ek demonstreer hoe optredes óf verwelkom en gevier is deur ooreenkoms, lag en liggaamlike uitdrukkings, óf verwerp is deur stilswye, geskreeu en andersyds. Dit het op sy beurt gelei tot aanpassings of oordrywings van dade wat deur die gehoor se reaksies ingelig is. Die gehoor was aktief betrokke by die opvoering, eerder as om waarnemers of verbruikers van hierdie optredes te wees. Anders as Goffman (1959) wat die rol van die akteur en die vertoning op die voorgrond stel, argumenteer ek dat die gehoor net so krities is in die vorming van die opvoering as wat die akteur en die heersende groot narratiewe of draaiboeke is. Vir hierdie doel voer ek aan dat sosiale identiteite mede-geproduseer word deur 'n dinamiese betrokkenheid wat ek noem Audiensciousness: die skerp bewustheid en betrokkenheid van akteurs en gehore by die opvoering en die produksie van sosiale identiteite en die sosiale betekenisse wat daaraan gekoppel word. Doctoral 2025-06-12T07:45:31Z 2025-06-12T07:45:31Z 2025-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132641 en_ZA Stellenbosch University 234 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Masculinity -- South Africa Sex role -- South Africa Men -- Identity -- South Africa Teenagers -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa Aggressiveness Culturally relevant pedagogy Equality -- Gender Educational equalization -- South Africa Colored people (South Africa) UCTD Makhetha, Trevor Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School |
| title | Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School |
| title_full | Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School |
| title_fullStr | Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School |
| title_full_unstemmed | Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School |
| title_short | Love, learning, and identity at New Hope: a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race, masculinity, and sexuality at a Northern Cape High School |
| title_sort | love learning and identity at new hope a critical ethnographic study of how young coloured men construct and perform race masculinity and sexuality at a northern cape high school |
| topic | Masculinity -- South Africa Sex role -- South Africa Men -- Identity -- South Africa Teenagers -- Sexual behavior -- South Africa Aggressiveness Culturally relevant pedagogy Equality -- Gender Educational equalization -- South Africa Colored people (South Africa) UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132641 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT makhethatrevor lovelearningandidentityatnewhopeacriticalethnographicstudyofhowyoungcolouredmenconstructandperformracemasculinityandsexualityatanortherncapehighschool |